hello everybody and welcome to this
video where I'm going to analyze the
Simon Armitage poem remains now let's
start off by looking at the poet himself
Simon Armitage an exam board favorite
I've been a teacher for 12 years and in
all of that time Simon Armitage his
poetry has been on the literature exam
in one form or another so he was born in
1963 in Huddersfield West Yorkshire and
actually recently elected an Oxford
professor of poetry and if you go on to
the Oxford University podcast website
there are three very interesting
lectures that Armitage gave about poetry
which you can download for free so do
check those out if you if you love
poetry
now this poem is quite an interesting
one because although Armitage wrote it
it's not about his own experience the
poem is taken from the collection the
not-dead from 2008 this was originally
aired as a Channel 4 documentary film
which you can watch on YouTube it's a
collection of poems about discharged
servicemen and so basically there are
poems written about the stories from
people who were serving in the Armed
Forces but have since left the Armed
Forces and remains is based on the true
story of this man Guardsman Romans who
was a machine gunner in the Iraq war in
2003 if you want to you can watch the
poetry analysis of manhunt also on my
channel which is another poem from this
collection but to understand the story
of this poem let's read it
because it's quite easy to understand
then I'll add some extra details on
another occasion we get sent out to
tackle looters raiding a bank and one of
them legs it up the road probably armed
possibly not well myself and somebody
else and somebody else are all of the
same mind so all three of us open fire
three of a kind all that in fly and I
swear I see every round as
rips through his life I see broad
daylight on the other side so we've hit
this looter a dozen times and he's there
on the ground sort of inside out pain
itself the image of agony one of my
mates goes by and tosses his guts back
into his body
then he's carted off in the back of a
lorry end of story
except not really his blood shadow stays
on the street and out on patrol I walk
right over it week after week then I'm
home on leave but I blink and he bursts
again through the doors at the bank
sleep and he's probably armed and
possibly not dream and he's torn apart
by dozen rounds and the drink and the
drugs won't flush him out he's here in
my head when I close my eyes dug in
behind enemy lines not left for dead in
some distant Sun stunts and smothered
land or six feet under in desert sand
but near to the knuckle here and now his
bloody life in my bloody hands okay so
absolutely true story basically the
situation was explained further in the
documentary the soldiers were called to
clear a bank which was being robbed
people were looting it and as they
approached the bank one man ran out so
they shot him but they had to clear the
whole building which was four or five
storeys high and when the building was
cleared the the soldier trailmen's was
on the roof and he looked down outside
onto the ground and saw that the man was
still there screaming on the road and
you know eventually he was taken off
never to be seen again and this was the
first time that the the soldier had
killed anybody and he couldn't forget it
and he suffered from great distress and
stress from the situation eventually
leaving the army that stress led to a
period of crying and substance abuse so
in terms of the power and conflict
cluster then remains is about the
after-effects of conflict
it compares well with war photographer
by Carol Ann Duffy in that it explores
how the blending together of conflict
zones and domestic life causes problems
ultimately it's about the true horror of
war the undescribable horror of war and
in that way it is also very similar to
bayonet charge by Ted Hughes and
exposure by Wilfred Owen now what I want
to do is analyze some of the structure
and the language use in this poem and as
always we're not just looking for things
though that we find in the poem but
we're trying to link them to the meaning
so let me give you some examples let's
start by looking at structure this poem
begins mid-action
on another occasion we get sent out now
I'm reading this the reader is
immediately on the back foot we're not
fully aware of the situation taking
place if this is another occasion what
were the previous ones and this
structural choice is a deliberate choice
to start the poem mid-action with the
suggestion clearly that something's gone
before and it helps us to understand the
lack of ease that the soldiers would
have felt joining a war zone
nothing is neatly controlled and
organized everything is chaos and that
is reflected in this Lakai optic
unstable opening where we we don't know
the whole story just like the soldiers
wouldn't know the whole story they would
have been told to go to this Bank they
would have known everything that was
going on so we're put in that position
through the structural choice to begin
the poem mid action there's some
repetition in this poem as well so in
the early part of the poem the soldier
is feeling guilty and he wants to make
it very clear that he was not the only
one who shot the looter he was not the
only one to blame so he describes the
shooting and he says well myself and
somebody else says somebody else are all
of the same mind so all three of us open
fire three of a kind or letting fly now
what's interesting here is that we have
the repetition of somebody else twice
which is used to deflect the blame from
the soldier alone he wants to make it
clear that others were involved and he
repeats the phrase somebody else to
minimize his own role
he could have just said you know myself
and to others but syntactically
sentence structure wise this line now
becomes dominated by the other soldiers
it suggests the narrator was not the
main culprit there's a sensitive on to
accept the sort of the lone or solitary
blame for what has taken place and this
repetition to shift blame is seen again
in the same stanza where the narrator
explains all three of us open fire
three of a kind so we've got the
repetition of three and it performs the
same function as the repetition of
somebody else it allows the narrator to
feel that he's not solely or wholly to
blame but that shift actually changes
later in the poem by the end we see that
it's very much just about the narrator
he explains his bloody life in my bloody
hands in the use of the word my here
marks a shift the poem ends with the
acknowledgement that the narrator is
taking responsibility it might have been
a joint decision but the reality is that
at home again on leave now not in the
war zone he deals with the consequences
alone the effect on him is that the
effect on him he's not with his other
soldiers now just to say that the
analysis of the pronoun mine would
actually be language analysis but we're
looking specifically at where it appears
in the poem which makes it a structure
point a lot of you message me saying you
struggle with structure points and one
of the ways to do it is to think well
choose something you're going to analyze
and see if you can analyze where it
appears and why that is important
another structural device is on Jean
Mont this is of course where sentences
flow over on two separate lines an
Armitage uses on Jean Minh to show the
life-changing moment when the soldier
shot the looter three of a kind or
letting fly and I swear I see every
round as it rips through his life so
there's on Jean Mont here not just
carrying a sentence over onto another
line but actually there's a whole stanza
break here and this break between the
action causes the reader to stop and it
emphasizes how this precise moment is
the soldier shot the looter is the the
big moment of his life it is ruined his
life from this point on the soldier
became a different
person said the forced break of line and
stanza reflects the broken man the
soldier became after this event took
place
Armitage uses sentence length to reflect
the trauma the soldier experienced we
get this sense that he's in this war
zone and in the documentary he talks
about how it was non-stop 24/7
adrenaline fear and danger and you know
he's is in this war zone at risk of
dying but then he goes home on leave
and you get the sense that oK you've got
a break from the Army now and you'd go
if I wanted even it's going to be ok and
of course he fires that it's not he far
as dead he has these nightmares he can't
forget the man he turns to drink and to
drugs and ultimately cannot get over the
trauma that was caused in wool which is
something that we find throughout the
world isn't it this post-traumatic
stress whatever you want to call it this
idea that the effects of war don't just
switch off when you go home so there is
a sense though that he thought they
would switch off when he went home look
at this slide here then I'm home on
leave now we've had a lot of enjoyment
in the poem but here we just have a very
short sentence with a full stop the
full-stop says yura causing appalls were
stopped in the middle of a sentence the
middle of a line this suggests that
there's a sense of finality to this
short blunt sentence the narrator feels
that going home will change things will
switch things off but of course that's
not what happens and to emphasize this
the next stanza has some repetition
again we see he's probably armed
possibly not is exactly the same as line
4 probably armed possibly not just to
say guys this armed shouldn't be there I
apologize for that you just need to be
careful that if you're looking at online
notes about poems and online editions of
poems they are exactly the same as the
one in your anthology because
occasionally there are different drafts
of poems and some are in the anthology
in a one way and not
they're in that kind of thing so forget
the word and here for your edition of
this poem but you can see look the line
the phrase probably armed possibly not
is repeated and of course that again
then is a a structural point repetition
is a structural point here now why well
it gives the poem a cyclical structure
near the end of the poem we're reminded
and taken right back to the near start
of the poem the whole thing goes round
in a circle which suggests that the
trauma the soldier is experienced is
inescapable cyclical structure has seen
in a lot of poems as you'll notice as
you've been watching my videos do make
sure you're watching all the videos in
this playlist because I'm covering all
of them so those are some points on
structure now let's have a look at
language the first thing I think is
really interesting about language in
this poem is to do with the title
remains what does it mean what does it
make you think of you know why not pause
the video and discuss or think about
that what as remains make you think of
well the dictionary defines it is the
parts left over when other parts have
been used removed or destroyed and what
a perfect definition for this poem the
soldier has been used in the machine of
war and all that is left is no good to
anybody is a broken person mentally now
and there are lots of ways that we can
analyze the importance of this title
another connotation of the word remains
links to the description of a person's
body after death you know we say the
we're going to you know collect the
remains we're going to bury the moraine
remains it's to do with when somebody
has died and knowing that this is a war
poem from a collection of war poems we
might expect that to be the meaning but
of course the soldier in the poem
doesn't die at least not physically but
metaphorically part of him does die
something inside of him on a deep level
dies when he shoots the looter and on a
literal level there are the remains of
the the shot of the bank looter the
blood shadow is a literal physical
remain that stays on the street and
the remains here could be the constant
reminder of the looter remind what
remains is the memory of the looter here
in my head so there's the remaining
memory the physical mark on the street
the blood but the memory in his head as
well
lots of ways you can analyze the
importance of the title now one of the
most instantly recognizable things is
the everyday language in this program
and the colloquialisms there's a lot of
informal sort of conversational language
we see for example how the looter legs
it up the road and that's a good example
now the language choice is at least to
begin with a very relaxed and casual and
we need to ask ourselves why is that
there's a couple of ideas I think on the
one hand it points out how this event
was an everyday event for the soldiers
that comes across very clearly in the
documentary everyday being put into
life-threatening situations and because
this is the kind of thing that they
constantly did it's just another
occasion as the opening line puts it is
just another one of many things it's
conversational we it's not described in
in this kind of as if it's a special or
a unique event because it literally
wasn't but the casual language does not
remain throughout as the soldier shoots
the looter the poem is filled with
horrific imagery such as every round
rips through his life a violent metaphor
but all the more so violent and shocking
when we contrast it to the previous use
of casual language so that's a structure
point Armitage has juxtaposed two
different types of language put them
next to each other to show the
difference between the two because it
paints a stronger picture of the before
and after effects of conflict on the
soldier from carefree and relaxed to
severely traumatized
Armitage his use of vague language as
well reflects the indescribable horror
of war just like Ted uses bayonet charge
he's on the ground sort of inside out is
an interesting phrase for a poet to use
sort of is very vague language and I
think it reflects the impossibility of
describing what is actually happening
this man's
been shot and his innards have come out
and you can't describe it doesn't have
the words for it doesn't have the
vocabulary for it we saw that didn't we
in Ted Hughes his bayonet charge Ted
Hughes did not have the vocabulary
didn't have the words to explain what
was happening so he had to go to William
Wilfred Owen's poetry to be able to
express what was going on which is why
there are so many similarities between
Ted Hughes his bayonet charge and one of
the early poems of Wilfred Owen so it
suggests that despite his army training
the narrator in this poem is not
prepared for the harsh reality of
killing somebody and then the treatment
of the wounded man is described with the
imagery of binman
one of my mates goes by and tosses his
guts back into his body
then he's carted off in the back of a
lorry the use of the verb tosses she was
a complete disrespect for the man as if
he is literally a piece of rubbish the
fact that he's tossed into a lorry
cannot help but make the reader picture
bin men doing their weekly round Totten
bin bags into the back of the van and
these language choices reflect the
treatment of the looter as rubbish show
the disrespect for human life on this
occasion so back at home on leave the
soldier than a rater he turns to
substance abuse but the drink and drugs
won't flush him out now the him in
question is clearly the looter the
memory of the looter would not disappear
from the soldier's mind but it's the
verb flush that I'm interested in here
when do we flush something out we link
it to sickness don't we if you have a
fever
you've got to flush it out to expel the
sickness from the body and flush in this
sense means to cleanse to rid of
something unpleasant it's the same with
the toilet we use large quantities of
water to cleanse it to flush it out so
the word flush suggests that the soldier
is now unclean and sick because of the
shooting and when describing the memory
of the looter being stuck in the
soldier's head Armitage uses the war
metaphor dug in behind enemy lines such
an interesting line because it might at
first seem quite fitting in a war poem
but we have to remember that the
narrator is at home on leave so the use
of war imagery whilst at home on leave
reflects the impact war has had on him
at the beginning he was at war using
casual language you might expect him to
use at home now he's at home using the
language you would expect him to use in
the war and it reflects the impact war
has had on him he begins to think in a
manner associated with war and conflict
it's inescapable he cannot stop he
cannot switch off now he's at home
he cannot switch off the soldier side of
him the phrase son stance and smothered
land is also worthy of analysis as I
read it there you would see the
sibilants the repetition of the soft s
sound four times an Armitage wants to
emphasize the significance of this line
so the sibilance causes us to stop and
look closely at it now we've got
compound adjectives here son stunned Sam
smothered and there's a positive image
in both of these Sun and sand but then
it turns sinister through the adjoining
words stunned and smothered aggressive
violent words and this reflects how
there's nothing positive left for the
narrator everything he experiences is
now tainted with the evil of war
very clever language choice from
Armitage finally then the poem in the
link at the end my bloody hands is a
link to Shakespeare's Macbeth in act 2
scene 2 of the play Lady Macbeth urges
her husband to wash the blood from his
hounds he's just killed the king and she
tells him a little water clears us of
this deed links to the flushing again
but this is an extended metaphor in
Macbeth and where the image of blood and
water is used to show that murderous
deeds are impossible to wash away and
Lady Macbeth actually returns to the
asymmetry she's insane so bloody hands
is a reference to Macbeth here just like
that Beth and Lady Macbeth murder and
horrific images of the murdered cannot
be forgotten they stay with the soldier
causing this mental damage I hope you
found this video useful guys check out
mr. brief calm the ebooks there there is
a poetry ebook which contains detailed
notes on I think about 10 of the poems
not this one
because this one is in copyright and I
couldn't get copyright permission for it
but it will help you with the other
poems and if you haven't already done so
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